This section is intended to introduce the reader to various aspects of art that may be related to various aspects of the presently described embodiments. This discussion is believed to be helpful in providing the reader with background information to facilitate a better understanding of the various aspects of the present embodiments. Accordingly, it should be understood that these statements are to be read in this light, and not as admissions of prior art.
In order to meet consumer and industrial demand for natural resources, companies often invest significant amounts of time and money in finding and extracting oil, natural gas, and other subterranean resources from the earth. Particularly, once a desired subterranean resource such as oil or natural gas is discovered, drilling and production systems are often employed to access and extract the resource. These systems may be located onshore or offshore depending on the location of a desired resource.
Drilling rigs can use hoisting systems for raising and lowering equipment in wells. As operators have moved to deeper waters and deeper wells, the weight of the equipment to be hoisted by drilling rigs (e.g., drill strings, casing strings, and wellhead equipment) has increased. Multi-part block-and-tackle arrangements have been used with drawworks for hoisting on drilling rigs, in which hoisting lines are reeved through sheaves of crown blocks and traveling blocks to provide a mechanical advantage. Past approaches to increasing the hoisting capabilities of such arrangements have included adding more sheaves in the block-and-tackle arrangements to allow for more line parts supporting the loads, and increasing the sizes of hoisting lines so that each hoisting line part can support greater weights.